say it with pie

The Canadian arts community, myself included, is up in arms over recent cuts to arts funding by the Conservative government and this utterly ridiculous opinions article in the National Post.

PromArt, a $4.7-million program that provides travel grants to artists for promoting Canadian culture abroad, has been the most contentious program cut. According to Kory Teneycke, the Prime Minister's press secretary, PromArt was cancelled because the grants were going to "highly ideological individuals exposing their agendas", "wealthy celebrities", and "fringe arts groups that in many cases would be at best, unrepresentative, and at worst, offensive."

Let's take a look at these ideological individuals, wealthy celebrities, and fringe art groups that the government and the Post are trying to demonize, shall we?

1. Gwynne Dyer: journalist and military historian

Why, for instance, is it the duty of Canadian taxpayers to fly left-wing anti-war journalist Gwynne Dyer—who is a resident of Britain—to Cuba to hobnob with that country's opinion leaders and give them a "greater awareness and appreciation of Canadian foreign policy, values and models"? --NP

But uh-oh: Dyer told The Globe and Mail that he was invited to speak in Cuba by a Foreign Affairs official who offered to pay for his travel expenses. Dyer never applied for his $3,000 PromArt grant. In fact, he'd never heard of PromArt before he was called out as an example of frivolous federal spending. So basically, the government fudged some numbers so his travel expenses would be covered by the PromArt budget. Classy.

2. Avi Lewis: broadcaster and filmmaker

Why should ordinary working Canadians give former CBC activist Avi Lewis, who now has brought his anti-American schtick to al Jazeera, $5,000 to attend film festivals in Australia and Argentina? Why should they underwrite his jet-setting travels when they are having trouble saving up a few hundred dollars for a summer camping vacation of their own? --NP

He works for al Jazeera, guys. He's a terrorist, don't you get it?

3. Tal Bachman: musician, son of The Guess Who's Randy Bachman, and the "wealthy celebrity" that the blues refer to.

But uh-oh again. Looks like pop sensation Tal Bachman never applied for a PromArt grant either, according to an interview with Eye Weekly:

“Nobody from my camp ever applied for anything,” Bachman tells Scrolling Eye. “My manager got a phone call from the booking agency inviting me on a trip to visit AIDS hospices and orphanages and township community centres for underprivileged youth, which was organized by the Canadian diplomatic corps.”

Also, Bachman says, “This is probably the most publicity I’ve gotten in eight years.” It's sad when the mighty fall. LOL

4. Holy Fuck: experimental rock band from Toronto.

There's an obscenity in their name!!

"I don’t even want to say it on the phone,” Anne Howland, a spokesperson for Foreign Affairs Minister David Emerson, tells the Canadian Press.

5. The Toronto International Film Festival: festival of film and celebrity schmoozefest.

Among the biggest beneficiaries of PromArt is the Toronto International Film Festival, which last year was given nearly $150,000 to bring out-of-country film buyers to T. O. and wine and dine them while they were there. --NP

TIFF co-director Cameron Bailey responds in this letter to the Post by explaining exactly what the PromArt grant money went to. It all sounds much more reasonable when its not put in terms of "wining and dining" film buyers.

What they downplay is all the artists and arts organizations that rely on programs like PromArt to survive. Like the one I work for, for example: the Ontario Crafts Council. I am a grant writer (or a thief of tax-payer dollars, however you want to look at it).

Without getting into too much grant-speak, the OCC is a not-for-profit organization that services professional craftspeople and advocates on their behalf—and we receive a lot of our funding from the government (as well as foundations). But we're not some welfare agency handing out cheques to lazy craftspeople; we produce publications, host exhibitions, and provide professional development support. Next year we're helping to organize an exhibition of Canadian craft at the 2009 Cheongju International Craft Biennale in South Korea, where Canada has been named the special featured country. It's likely that we'd have applied for and received a PromArt grant which would have greatly offset the cost of traveling the exhibition overseas. Now we will have to try and find other routes to get the funding.

The National Post article concludes "If Canadian artists produce world-class art, then it will be noticed on the world stage—with or without government assistance." Which is true in our case—we're not going to back out of the biennale just because PromArt has been cut. But it might be nice to get a little assistance from the government while we're promoting Canadian craft and design to an international market. It's good for the economy, just ask Mr. Florida.

Photo by claylindo.